Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

the changing relationships between public and private spheres,
is also being carried out on the Continent by scholars from
numerous disciplines158.
3.3 Consumption and Industrialization
Initially archaeologists were largely concerned to date and
provenance their wares and examine problems of technology.
In the last two decades much excellent work has appeared linking
archaeology and documentary research and increasingly
studying production, distribution, consumption and discard as
part of a single chain or life history159. Examples of taphonomic
analysis (breakage and depositional analysis) of medieval and/
or post-medieval fi nds include Françoise Pipponier’s study of
the fi nds from the deserted medieval village of Dracy in France
and Stuart Wrathmell’s analysis of the fi nds from the ditch of
Penhow Castle in Wales; while Stephen Moorhouse has brought
together material from a wide range of British sites160. Much of
the literature on post-medieval material culture and consumption
has been generated by the needs of urban archaeology to
interpret the enormous quantities of excavated fi nds recovered
from urban excavations. Recurring topics include supply networks
and the problems of interpreting social status of both
households and districts161. Other areas of discussion have
included the interplay of such factors as cuisine, trade, technology
and fashion in infl uencing changing forms and styles162.
Food history is an area cutting across several academic disciplines
but oft en having a material culture element163. Stephen
Mennell’s conclusions that the post-medieval divergence of
English and French cuisine refl ect a complex social and political
history rather than diff erences between Catholic hedonism
and Protestant puritanism is a warning against superfi cial interpretations
of cultural diff erences164. Notable for their interdisciplinary
approaches are Kistemaker and Van Vilsteren’s edited
volume on beer in Holland, Cora Laan’s study of drinking in
18th-century Dutch inns and research by Sarah Pennell, Peter
Brears, Fred Kaspar on the material culture of kitchens165.
Industrial archaeology has been a major sub-discipline not
only in Britain but also in other European regions which experienced
industrialisation, notably in France, Germany, Belgium,
Ireland, Italy and Spain166. Originally, it was mostly an amateur-led
discipline, with an emphasis on technical analysis and
158 Baetens & Blondé 1991; Leménorel 1997;
Th omasson 1997; Kistemaker 2000.
159 Appadurai 1986.
160 Pipponier 1975; Wrathmell 1987; Moorhouse
1984.
161 Allan 1984; Baart 1990; Th ijssen 1993; Bartels
1999; Brown 1999; Ravoire 2002.
162 Blake 1980; Alexandre-Bidon 1985;
Goldthwaite 1989; Fayre-Boucharlat 1990;
Verhaeghe 1991; Idem 1999; Gaimster & Nenk
1997; Courtney 1997b; Idem 2004; Gaimster
1998, 115-155; Cumberpatch 2003.
163 Moulin 1989; Anne Wilson 1991; Schärer &
Fenton 1998; Scholliers 2001; Carroll et al. 2005.
164 Mennell 1985.
165 Kistemaker & Van Vilsteren 1994; Laan 2003;
Pennell 1998; Idem 1999; Brears 2000; Kaspar 1996.
166 Trinder 1993; Bergeron & Dorel-Ferre 1996;
Represa 1996; Scholliers 2003; Idem 2006;
Donnelly & Horning 2002.
167 Palmer & Neaverson 1998; Idem 2005;
Newman et al. 2001; Barker & Cranstone 2004;
Casella & Symonds 2005.
168 Palmer 1990; Idem 2005; Walker et al. 2003;
Cranstone 2004; Casella & Symonds 2005.
Social theory and post-medieval archaeology: a historical perspective 325
fi eld recording. Th e last few decades have seen a growth in
industrial and eco-museums across Europe and in the preservation
and recording of landscapes threatened by regeneration.
Th is has given the subject a much stronger professional base
especially in the heritage industry, fi eld archaeology and
increasingly in universities. Industrial archaeologists are also
examining the material culture, landscapes and social culture of
industrialisation167. Whether industrial archaeology should
remain a thematic discipline, expand into the archaeology of
the industrial period or be subsumed into a holistic ‘historical’
archaeology studying the period from c.1500 to the present is
a major current debate in Britain168.
Pioneering works looking at the creation of industrial landscapes,
rather than merely industrial units, include a 1975
Belgian exhibition catalogue, Le paysage de l’industrie169,
Devilliers and Huet’s architectural analysis of the new industrial
town of Le Creusot in Burgundy170 and various studies of
industrial housing in England and Wales171. Notable recent
works stressing the social analysis of whole industrialized
landscapes include British studies of Ironbridge Gorge172 and
Swansea173. David Gwyn has argued for a linkage between
slate worker’s villages and blocks of small freehold tenements
in north-west Wales, as large landowners discouraged village
creation174. Barrie Trinder has applied a classifi catory approach
to understand why only particular market towns industrialized175.
Keith Matthews’ and Eleanor Conlin Casella’s excavations,
respectively in urban Chester and rural Alderley Edge,
have critically examined the use of material culture by the
Victorian working class176. Gavin Lucas has analysed the social
meaning of transfer-prints using an excavated group of mid-
19th-century ceramics from a Buckinghamshire farmhouse,
especially the short-lived popularity of scenes from the novels
of Sir Walter Scott177.
Permeability maps (access diagrams) have been utilized by
Gary Campion to study the layouts of textile workshops and
housing in Nottinghamshire, especially to shed light on power
relationships in the industry178. Max Weber’s concept of social
closure has been adapted by Mike Nevell and John Walker to
analyse the relationship between landownership, class and
industrialisation in surveys of archaeological remains in
Tameside, Lancashire179. Th is thesis suggests that new classes
emerge through competition for economic resources then close
169 Wieser-Benedetti 1975.
170 Devilliers & Huet 1981.
171 Chapman 1971; Lowe 1977; Leech 1981.
172 Alfrey & Clark 1993.
173 Hughes 2000.
174 Gwyn 2002.
175 Trinder 2002.
176 Matthews 1999; Idem 2003; Casella 2005.
177 Lucas 2003.
178 Campion 1994.
179 Nevell & Walker 1998; Idem 1999.